Veolia locked out the Teamsters on October 3 because, according to a company spokeswoman, the company went as far as it could go in negotiations with the union and reached an impasse.

Even still, she said, the company wanted to keep negotiating. So why lock them out?

Veolia said that they concerned that the Teamster would strike and disrupt bus service.

Odd reasoning, especially since Veolia has replacement workers waiting to fill any empty jobs. Veolia managed to fill more than 50 jobs in just a few hours after notifying the union reps that they were locking out the Teamsters.